House Military
"House Military" was the term for the collective armed forces of the Great Houses during the War. The House Military was not a cohesive and official unit, because (supposedly) all of the Houses were equally dedicated to the War effort. Instead, the term referred to a loose alliance of Houses (notably Arpexia, Xianthellipse, and Mirraflex) and their military presence in the Spiral Politic outside the Homeworld. (PROSE: House Military) History Pre-War Before the War, the Great Houses' only military force was their . This ceremonial guard was monstrously ineffective, proving itself completely useless in repelling the (ultimately doomed) invasion attempts of aliens (PROSE: House Military) like the Sontarans (TV: ) and Daleks. (AUDIO: ) The one exception to this was the House Military formed under the Imperator Presidency. It was formed from lesser species recruits as well as the Imperator's followers, and created havoc across the Spiral Politic until the Imperator's execution. (PROSE: Imperator Presidency, The Return of the King) Waves Instead of dividing their military into legions, or by purpose, the Great Houses primarily organised the House Military into a sequence of generations called Waves. The War took the form of a cycle between the instantaneous deployment of an entire Wave, and a long lull of entrenchment as the Houses concentrated their effort on the design and gathering of biodata for the next. Each Wave tended to curb its predecessor's excesses, while emphasising the traits that had lead to success. Instead of numbering campaigns in order, the Houses numbered them based on Wave: the Third Retro-War was named for the Wave involved, not for the number of Retro-Wars preceding it. (PROSE: Waves of the House Military) Minor references Tonton Macoute once cooked with the bodies of House Military soldiers. (PROSE: Tonton Macoute) The House Military were sent to the Great Houses' prison planet to stop a prison break orchestrated by a posthuman from Siloportem, Demetra Kein. (AUDIO: A Labyrinth of Histories) Biology , in one of her less formal regen-bodies.]] Because the First Wave was composed of ordinary House members, its troops were all hominid. But when Second Wave troops were killed, their new bodies would be slightly less hominid, with whatever flaw resulted in their death removed. The idea was taken farther in the Third Wave, with regen-inf soldiers who became living siege engines, with built-in temporal senses, defences, and weaponry. (PROSE: Regen-inf, Waves of the House Military) Culture There was an unofficial cultural schism (exemplified by the Redemption Cult) between the House Military and the Great Houses proper back on the Homeworld. House Military troops often saw themselves as the only active upholders of the Homeworld's laws and culture, looking down on the Council of the ruling Houses and even their own time strategists for only acting from a distance. The schism was also encouraged by the soldiers' biological nature: forced regen missions created a death-fetishism more natural to Faction Paradox than Homeworld tradition, and the physical incongruity between sheltered hominids and the living tanks of the House Military only grew with time. (PROSE: House Military, Redemption Cult) Category:Military units Category:House Military